Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Housing: Construction

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to make water companies statutory consultees in major housing developments.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: Whilst we generally resist adding new statutory consultees to the planning application process, the Government has made a commitment, as part of its reform package under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, to consult on whether or not we should make water companies statutory consultees on certain planning applications, and if so, how best to do this. It will be important that water companies engage local planning authorities on their applications at the right time so they can input effectively and not slow down the application process.The approach to managing and avoiding flood risk is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework, underpinned by our planning guidance. This applies to all sources of flooding, including from overwhelmed sewers and drainage systems. The Framework expects local planning authorities to plan for the development and infrastructure required in their area, including infrastructure for wastewater and utilities. They should work with other providers, such as sewerage companies, to assess the quality and capacity of infrastructure and its ability to meet forecast demands.

Department of Health and Social Care

Respiratory Syncytial Virus: Vaccination

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government what is their response to the guidance of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation which states that vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus is recommended for infants; and if they intend to accept that recommendation, when they expect members of the public to begin receiving their vaccination.

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had regarding the business case to support the introduction of an immunisation programme for respiratory syncytial virus for older adults this winter.

Lord Markham: The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is actively reviewing evidence for new and emerging products for a potential respiratory syncytial virus immunisation programme for adults and will advise Government once their review has concluded. The Department will support the implementation of any policy arising from this advice with NHS England and UK Health Security Agency as soon as is practicable.

Osteoporosis: Fractures

Lord Black of Brentwood: To ask His Majesty's Government whetherNHS England has set key performance indicators for integrated care boards or NHS Trusts to improve detection of osteoporotic fractures; and, in considering whether or not to set such key performance indicators, whether NHS England takes account of the risk that bone fractures can cause of premature death and disability.

Lord Markham: As part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme, the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership commission and manage a range of audits, including the Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme. These collect and analyse data supplied by local clinicians to provide a national picture regarding care. The results can then be used by systems and trusts to focus quality improvement.This programme audits against a range of key performance indicators informed by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology assessments and guidance from the Royal Osteoporotic Society Clinical Standards. This includes those related to detection of osteoporotic fractures. There are also indicators related to osteoporosis and the prevention of fragility fractures within the Quality and Outcomes Framework.

Cabinet Office

Cabinet Office: Routledge

Lord Godson: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the contractual relationship between the Cabinet Office and the publisher, Routledge.

Lord Godson: To ask His Majesty's Government whether Routledge has an exclusive right to publish Official Histories produced by the Official History Programme under its contract with the Cabinet Office.

Lord Godson: To ask His Majesty's Government whether any new Official Histories have been commissioned since the publication of the Joe Pilling Review into the Official History Programme in 2008; and if so, what Official Histories have been commissioned and when.

Lord Godson: To ask His Majesty's Government whether Official Histories on ‘Devolution’ and ‘Policy towards the Former Yugoslavia’ have been commissioned.

Lord Godson: To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Official History Programme has its own budget.

Lord Godson: To ask His Majesty's Government whatwas the total budget allocated by the Cabinet Office to the Official History Programme in each of the financial years: (1) 2016–17, (2) 2017–18, (3) 2018–19, (4) 2019–20, (5) 2020–21, and (6) 2021–22.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The Cabinet Office, as part of a consortium including the FCDO and MoD, has a non-exclusive contract with Taylor Francis, Routledge’s Parent Company, for the publication of Official Histories.No new official histories have been commissioned since the Pilling Review and no histories of devolution or policy towards Yugoslavia have been commissioned.The Official History Programme had a budget of £7,500 in 2016-17 but has not had a separate budget since then.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Food: Prices

Lord Rogan: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of food inflation on family budgets in (1) Northern Ireland, (2) England, (3) Scotland, and (4) Wales.

Lord Benyon: Tackling inflation is this government’s number one priority, with a plan to more than halve inflation this year. Annual food price inflation, reported by the ONS, was 19.1% in April 2023. This was a decrease of 0.1 percentage points on the March 2023 rate. Overall CPI inflation decreased to 8.7% in April 2023 down from 10.1% in March 2023. The rate of food price inflation in the UK equalled the average rate for the EU in March 2023. The recent high levels of inflation have primarily been driven by higher energy prices and pressures on global supply chains and there are signs those are beginning to ease. Industry analyst expectations are that we are either at or approaching the food price inflation peak, from which point they expect food price inflation to gradually decrease over the remainder of 2023. We will need several more months of data to be confident that the fall this month is a reflection that the peak has already been reached. While we do not have individual data on food price inflation rates for the devolved nations, we do have some statistics from the Office of National Statistics on differences in average household spend for the different devolved nations. For the year from April 1st 2020 to March 31st 2021, UK households spent on average £64.90 on food and non-alcoholic beverages, compared to £65.50 for England, £62.20 for Wales, £60.10 for Scotland and £70 for NI. As a proportion of total expenditure, this was 11.7% for UK, 11.5% for England, 12.7% for Wales, 12.4% for Scotland and 14.6% for Northern Ireland. The average impact of food inflation on household budgets within each of the devolved administrations will depend on both the relevant food inflation rate, and the proportion of total expenditure spend on food per household in that region. The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the current exceptionally high cost of living. To protect the most vulnerable from the worst of cost-of-living pressures, the Chancellor recently announced a package of targeted support worth £26 billion, which includes continued support for rising energy bills.

Plastics: Pollution Control

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: To ask His Majesty's Government what are their negotiating objectives for the Plastic Pollution Treaty.

Lord Benyon: The UK is proud to have supported the proposal by Rwanda and Peru that led to the ambitious resolution on ending plastic pollution agreed at the continuation of the 5th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022. A series of Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meetings are now underway to negotiate the content of the treaty, with good progress being made. The second of five planned INC meetings is taking place 29 May – 2 June in Paris, with the aim of concluding negotiations by the end of 2024. The UK’s objectives are to agree an ambitious and comprehensive treaty that addresses the whole lifecycle of plastics, from the production and design of plastics to their consumption and disposal. Furthermore, the UK supports a treaty that addresses the environmental and health impacts of plastic pollution. The UK supports a combination of internationally legally binding obligations and national measures across the whole lifecycle of plastic to ensure that the treaty can adequately address the transboundary nature of plastic pollution. The UK is also a founding member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a group of over 50 countries calling for a headline target under the treaty to stop plastic from flowing into the environment by 2040.

Environment Protection

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: To ask His Majesty's Government when the measurable indicators of progress for the Environmental Improvement Plan will be finalised.

Lord Benyon: The Environment Act’s statutory cycle of monitoring, planning and reporting ensures that government will take early, regular steps to achieve targets and can be held to account with regular scrutiny from the Office for Environmental Protection and Parliament. A key part of this cycle is the Annual Progress Report (APR) which describes what has been done to implement the Environmental Improvement Plan and considers whether the natural environment, or aspects of it, have improved over the reporting period. The latest APR was published on 20th July 2022. In addition to other sources, the APR utilises data from the Outcome Indicator Framework for the 25 Year Environment Plan which is a suite of outcome indicators that measure changes to the environment. The 2023 annual update to the Outcome Indicator Framework was published on 22 May 2023 and provides the latest available data on environmental trends. Defra intends to publish data for all indicators by 2024. The Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 is the first revision of the 25 Year Environment Plan. The full Outcome Indicator Framework will be reviewed in 2024 to evaluate its ongoing suitability and consideration of best available evidence. This review will also consider the framework’s alignment with the planned monitoring of the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.

Plastics: Recycling

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: To ask His Majesty's Government what is their response to the Greenpeace reportForever Toxic: The science on health threats from plastic recycling, published on 24 May; in particular, the finding that "recycled plastics often contain higher levels of chemicals".

Lord Benyon: We welcome the breadth of ongoing work in this area such as the research carried out by Greenpeace. In accordance with the waste hierarchy, in all circumstances, preventing waste in the first place is the preferred option.

Sewage: Property Development

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of major housing developments in contributing to sewage spills into combined sewers where the standard of the pipes falls below acceptable environmental standards.

Lord Benyon: In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history – the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. This plan was published alongside an Impact Assessment. The Government has reviewed making Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) mandatory in new developments and will do this through the implementation of Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. We are now looking at how best to implement, considering scope, threshold and process, while also being mindful of the cumulative impact of new regulatory burdens on the development sector. There will be a public consultation later this year with implementation expected during 2024. The approach to managing and avoiding flood risk is also set out in the National Planning Policy Framework, underpinned by our planning guidance, applies to all sources of flooding, including from overwhelmed sewers and drainage systems. The Framework expects local planning authorities to plan for the development and infrastructure required in their area, including infrastructure for wastewater and utilities. They should work with other providers, such as sewerage companies, to assess the quality and capacity of infrastructure and its ability to meet forecast demands. The Government has made a commitment, as part of its reform package under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, to consult on whether or not we should make water companies statutory consultees on certain planning applications, and if so, how best to do this. It will be important that water companies engage local planning authorities on the right applications at the right time so they can input effectively and not slow down the application process.

Department for Transport

Logistics: Alternative Fuels

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government whether the forthcoming low carbon fuels strategy will cover all transport modes used by the logistics sector.

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role synthetic fuels could play in reducing carbon emissions associated with the logistics sector.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The forthcoming low carbon fuels strategy will cover all transport modes used by the logistics sector. Synthetic fuels can be expensive and energy-intensive to manufacture. However, they do have potential to help decarbonise transport sectors where there are limited alternatives to liquid or gaseous fuels, such as the heaviest and longest-range vehicles and aircraft.In recognition of the potential benefits of synthetic fuels produced using renewable power, these fuels are eligible for support under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) certificate trading scheme.

Large Goods Vehicles: Carbon Emissions

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government when the nextstage of the Zero Emission Road Freight (ZERFT) Demonstration programme will commence.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: Following last year’s successful competition, due diligence on winning bidders is expected to be completed soon and the final outcome will then be announced.

Logistics: Hydrogen

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role hydrogen could play in reducing carbon emissions associated with the logistics sector.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: Hydrogen has an important potential role to play in decarbonising heavier applications such as HGVs. There are specific use cases where hydrogen can offer advantages over batteries, for example where vehicles need longer ranges and more rapid refuelling (longer distance HGVs) or greater energy density. The Zero Emission Road Freight Demonstrator programme will showcase zero emission HGV technologies, including hydrogen fuel cells, at scale, on UK roads. The programme will build a strong evidence base to enable strategic, long-term, national infrastructure decisions to be made. The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) supports the supply of renewable hydrogen used in transport by placing obligations on suppliers to ensure a percentage of the fuel supplied in the UK is from renewable sources where it can provide valuable carbon savings. The Government has expanded this support to include not just road vehicles, but also trains and shipping. Fuels supplied under the RTFO scheme deliver a third of domestic transport carbon savings under current carbon budgets.

Logistics: Alternative Fuels

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the cost of low-carbon fuels, compared to diesel and kerosene, on their usage by logistics businesses.

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on carbon emissions from logistics vehicles that would come from greater use of low-carbon drop-in fuels, compared to diesel.

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they haveto increase the production of low-carbon fuels for all logistics transport modes.

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to publish the low carbon fuels strategy.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The Low Carbon Fuel Strategy, which the Department intends to publish later this year, will set out possible scenarios for the deployment of low carbon fuels across transport sectors out to 2050. The Government supports the production of low carbon fuels through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) and published a cost benefit analysis for the RTFO in 2021, but it has not undertaken a formal assessment of the impact of cost of different fuel types or the level of usage for logistics businesses. The Department recognises the opportunities for using higher blend renewable fuels, including drop in fuels, in maximising greenhouse gas savings when used in existing vehicles. As set out in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, the Department is exploring potential measures to remove market barriers for use in the logistics sector.

Home Office

Refugees: Resettlement

Lord German: To ask His Majesty's Government how many referrals were made by theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to (1) the UK Resettlement Scheme, (2) Community Sponsorship, (3) the Mandate Resettlement Scheme, and (4) the Family Reunion Scheme, in each of the past three years; and how many referrals were not accepted in each of those schemes.

Lord Murray of Blidworth: Between 2015 and March 2023, just over half a million people were offered safe and legal routes into the UK. This includes those from Hong Kong, Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, as well as family members of refugees, alongside our global resettlement schemes. The UK continues to welcome refugees and people in need through existing resettlement schemes and is one of the largest recipients of UNHCR referred refugees globally, second only to Sweden in Europe since 2015.Under these schemes, the UNHCR will refer refugees for resettlement after undertaking an assessment of people’s needs and vulnerabilities. The UK does not seek to influence which cases are referred by the UNHCR under these global schemes.Family Reunion is not referral based. It is an application based route.

Slavery: Victims

Lord Morrow: To ask His Majesty's Government, in each of the past five years, how many decision makers there have been in the competent authorities making conclusive grounds decisions identifying victims of modern slavery.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: There are 207.93 full-time equivalent (FTE) decision makers working in the Single Competent Authority. There are 111.87 decision makers working within the Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority. Both Competent Authorities carry a number of vacancies being filled through recruitment activity. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of only Conclusive Grounds Decision Makers; staff can be dual skilled and will work on both, Reasonable Grounds decision and Conclusive Ground decision, workstreams according to business needs. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of decision maker numbers for the past five years.

HOPE not Hate

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers byLord Sharpe of Epsom on 16 May (HL7538 and HL7539), what action they have taken against (1) groups, or (2) individuals, of extremist concern; when they took that action; and what was the outcome.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: Some groups publicly demonstrate behaviours that oppose the values and principles that underpin our society. The Government is committed to tackling those who spread views that promote violence and hatred against individuals and communities in our society. This includes using existing mechanisms to analyse, prevent and disrupt the spread of ideologies that can lead to community division.We assess all evidence of those that radicalise others though their support for or justification of violence and will not tolerate those who spread divisive and harmful narratives. We work with local, regional and national partners, including with policing, to reduce the impact of these groups in communities and limit their influence as a potential driver for radicalisation.We continue to work with law enforcement agencies and multi-agency partners to increase our understanding of new and emerging radicalising threats to society. Any violent threat is assessed and managed by the police and security services based on the threat that it is deemed to pose.The Home Office avoids publicly commenting on whether or not specific groups or individuals are of extremist concern, as this could have a detrimental effect on our ability to take future action against them.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Sudan: Armed Conflict

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks byLord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 18 May concerning the conflict in Sudan, whether they intend to convene a highlevel strategic discussion with international partners to address (1) the conflict in Sudan, and (2) the consequences of the increasing number of displaced Sudanese people and refugees.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: Since this conflict erupted in April, we have pursued all diplomatic avenues to end the violence, de-escalate tensions and secure humanitarian access. The Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Defence Secretary and Minister for Development and Africa have been in regular touch with international partners to support efforts to sustain a ceasefire. We are also monitoring and addressing the humanitarian and security impacts of the conflict on Sudan's neighbouring countries. On 4 May, the UK Government announced an initial £5 million of life-saving aid to help meet the urgent needs of tens of thousands of refugees and returnees in South Sudan and Chad who have fled the violence in Sudan.

Nagorno Karabakh: International Law

Baroness Cox: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 17 April (HL Deb, col 464), what assessment they have made of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh in international law.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The UK's long-standing position has been to support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan within its internationally-recognised borders, which include Nagorno Karabakh. At the same time, the UK Government is clear that there is no military solution to the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh; we welcome the recent participation of Armenia and Azerbaijan in negotiations to work towards settling all outstanding matters between them, and urge them to build on this momentum.

EU Indo-Pacific Forum

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: To ask His Majesty's Government which minister or ministers represented the UK at the EU Indo–Pacific Forum on 12 May; andwhich bilateral meetings were held by the UK representative with EU and Indo–Pacific ministers who attended the Forum.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the outcomes from the discussions at the EU Indo–Pacific Forum held in Stockholm on 12 May; and what plans they have made to attend such meetings in the future.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: I [Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and United Nations], represented the UK at the EU Indo-Pacific Forum in Stockholm on 13 May. I had substantive dialogue with many EU and Indo-Pacific Ministers during the meeting, as well as bilaterals with Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marsudi, Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Rabbani Khar, Bangladesh's Minister of Information, Mahmud and Sweden's Foreign Minister Billström. Discussions at the Forum were useful and demonstrated strong collective commitment to promoting peace and security, stability and shared prosperity across the region. The UK will continue engaging with our EU and Indo-Pacific partners in multiple formats to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.